Medieval futures II

Thoughts about the future have been
popular here, so once again it is time to take up what will apparently
become a series. Medieval music has become increasingly popular,
to the point where it is no longer a negligible appendix to classical
record sales. Artistry aside, commercial aspects strongly suggest
that its influence on subsequent music composition & performance
will only increase. As we move into 1999, we are at a historical
crossroads, and millennial thoughts seem to herald medieval ideas
even more strongly, both for the sense of history and the patterns
which emerge. As a simplistic historical progression, we can
consider the centuries of Western art music by threes. Although
it was employed previously, polyphony came into its own in the
twelfth century, so starting from there, the Ars
Subtilior concludes the first three hundred years. The second
tricentennial brings us past the Renaissance
and pre-Baroque, as the third opens with the codifications of the
major/minor system per se in Fux & Rameau. Of course, it closes
with us. The next generation of art
music will have a wider range of influences than ever before,
both from around the world and throughout history, and it is into
this highly charged environment that medieval music now finds itself
centrally placed.

This wide range of influences can have various ramifications,
especially as they fold back upon themselves. The influences are
not only relevant to composing new music, since the performance
practices themselves borrow elements & ideas, especially from
world music into medieval music. Although some examples have come
to the fore of late, the borrowing is by no means new. In the
1970s, Arabic instruments and styles were popular in the performance
of French medieval music, only to fall out of favor, and come back.
The cycle almost seems like that of
popular fashion clothing. One specific trend in performance style,
as we move into a post-authentic phase born of increased
knowledge of a finite set of facts, is that various influences are
reinjected immediately into the public's apprehension of
new old art music. The idea behind
post-authentic style is that our level of knowledge regarding
performance can only take us so far into the totality of sonic
details for a musical creation, and so at some point we must fill
in with something else, even after accommodating "all"
of the available evidence. Thus far, most of this filling has been
useless fluff... sometimes worse than useless, such as the refusal
to articulate which can plague these performances... but artists
are seeking other ideas to charge their performances. Due to basic
similarities with some world music traditions, they are natural
places to look for ideas, but for a truly post-authentic style,
the ideas must then be welded more carefully to what is known of
early Western style. This will come in time, as performers are
not trained in a day.

Influences from Western music also filter back into
world music, and so things become
increasingly jumbled. There is still something to be said for
purity of tradition, and there is certainly a place remaining for
the most straightforward medieval performances possible. Although
fusion music presents a wonderful
creative outlet, I also believe it presents many dangers. Some
ideas can only function to full effect in their own space. In the
case of medieval music, we are trapped between creating a living
"space" in the first place and keeping it empty enough
for some breathing room. One thing I insist upon is that nuance
& clarity are crucial to medieval performance, and that descending
into the kind of bland nothingness which can afflict these
interpretations is not a way to preserve space. However, there is
no question that it is a "stable" or "peaceful"
quality which has made medieval music appealing to general listeners,
and so it is important to reconcile these notions with the details
of the situation, both to find an interpretive stance and to
understand how medieval music will affect subsequent musical
endeavors. The key distinction is that medieval music as a whole
is generally more subtle. Its complexities
are not forced down one's throat, but rather exist in a latent form
which must be actively grasped by the mind. It presents a surface
of still water, teaming with life underneath.

Contrasts with typical presentation styles in today's world
abound. Not only is medieval music less aggressive or indulgent,
but it evokes a broader historical backdrop to the frenetic world
of progress. As people become more
caught up in the pace of life, and the increasing adaptations
required of them, perhaps they begin to crave a stability which
can be found both in the medieval art itself and the fact of its
historical perspective. Although ideas of "escape" may
come to mind, the effects can be more real. Even for someone who
glories in the moment, an understanding of the past intensifies
the present, and gives added weight to groundbreaking ideas today.
This has always been the paradox of thinking
about the future. Beyond that, as we look for permanent and
sustainable solutions to the problems of today, the very stability
of the medieval worldview becomes a
matter of inspiration, if only obliquely so. It is, however, this
very seductive sense of stasis which can serve to undermine the
credibility of medieval music in the
aesthetic domain. The nature of the reinjected ideas arising from
post-authentic performance is not necessarily
rationalist, and although this aspect
opens up a plethora of avenues for artistic exploration, it also
clashes most strongly with the preoccupations of the modern world.
Rhetoric has become fundamentally rationalist, and so while the
most revolutionary idea needs lateral thinking to develop, it must
adopt another mode to sell itself. Fortunately, a solution to this
paradox is only impossible for the rationalist, and medieval music
has been almost insidious in its creeping success.

The proposed centrality of medieval music arises
primarily from its relatively closer approach to various world
idioms, and consequently the potential for a unifying thread in
what is otherwise a disparate hodgepodge of musical ideas available
to modern composers. Although different traditions certainly retain
their own individual strengths and intricacies, the medieval
perspective allows one to begin to perceive commonalities in
development, allowing one to find a coherent stance from which to
incorporate one or more differing
ideas. I claim that this is the central aesthetic problem of
postmodern art music. Finding a
voice requires either the extremes of isolation or cosmopolitan
knowledge, and the pastiche which the latter initially provokes
can only be "cured" by a deeper understanding. It remains
the task of the artist to internalize something fundamental and to
articulate it in some way, but the required inversion of stimulus
into cogent expression cannot be done without a boundary. The
medieval strand of music history provides one such boundary. The
musical material itself also provides a new emphasis on nuance as
well as profundity without grandiosity. These traits, illustrated
so well in the medieval repertory, are essential to grounding an
artistic vision in real human experience. Small basic elements
can drive the continual rediscovery of tradition most powerfully.

Administrivia: This project will be on hiatus
over the holiday season. I hope everyone has an enjoyable time.
The next column will be in five weeks. Sometime prior to that,
the Medieval Record of the Year for
1998 discussion will appear.